Take a look at the agenda and the key speaker attending the conference:

8:30am - 9:30am

Tea, Networking and Registration

9:30am - 9:45am

Introductory Note

9:45am - 10:35am

Panel I: Future of consumer brands in the digital age

Consumer brands in India have come of age and are following a hybrid approach to reach their consumers. Ecommerce has been changing the way consumers buy brands, making it easier for brand owners to reach their captive audience. Digital and social media acts as an enabler helping brands market in a cost-effective way and have a social connect with consumers. While all looks good, what is the future of consumer brands in the digital age? Will the digital waive help them build stronger brands or does it pose challenges in terms of online reputation and brand management? How are industry stalwarts planning to ride the digital wave?

With changing lifestyle and added women workforce, the joy of cooking seems to be substituted by the likes of ready-to-eat/ready-to-cook foods. What appeals to the Indian consumers more is the whole new aspect of convenience, innovation, experimentative palate and localised taste. What steps are brands taking to create high quality business-to-consumer (B2C) brands? What role is modern trade playing in driving innovations and delivering convenience to consumers? What are the emerging opportunities in Indian snacking segment, which can be consumed at any time of the day? How are nutrition products finding their way through the homes of health-conscious buyers? With players like McCain and VKL Seasoning, among others serving the end consumer directly, how are B2B players mastering B2C business strategy?

Thanks to increasing spending power and changing lifestyles, out-of-home eating segment has been seen increasing steeply over the last couple of years. With multiple formats, choice of different cuisines, convenience and class-apart customer experience, what are the underlying opportunities offered by out-of-home eating segment? What are the innovations seen in the food delivery market? How are online players such as foodpanda, TastyKhana adding to the consumer experience in food delivery? What are entrepreneurs doing to make fine dine and specialty restaurants a profitable bet? With demand driving the expansion plans for most of the restaurants, is there a plan in action to turn businesses profitable? Will ‘take-away and home deliveries’ becoming the turning point for restaurant businesses? What are the major hurdles obstructing operations of food services in India? Which sub-segments among food service industry are a sweet spot for investors? How are they viewing the overall space?

Optimism abounds in India with burgeoning HNIs and upper middle class inching up to fulfil their desires for luxury and premium products and services. With ‘bridge-to-luxury’ or affordable luxury brands marking their presence felt in India, aspirational Indian youth are buying into this segment making it a hot segment with healthy margins and easier break-even. To make the most of this opportunity, what strategy are brands following to set up shop in India? What are the recent developments in Indian retailers with regards to affordable luxury products? How are brands leveraging niche online retailers with differentiated models to reach prospective consumers? Besides shoes, accessories and bags, which other categories are reporting high trajectory growth? What are the road blocks faced by luxury brands while opening up its stores in India? What opportunities does this segment offers to private investors and how are they looking at it?

Year 2014 witnessed large consumer brands hitting the headlines for most unwanted reasons. Be it a taxi hailing app failing to comply with drivers’ authentication or large e-com players delivering faulty/wrong deliveries or telecom players being criticised over depreciating quality of network and never resolving consumer complaints, all point to the question of delivering and managing consumer experience. While we have seen a spurt of consumer product/services businesses emerging in last couple of years, how are these players delivering and managing consumer experience, on a longer run? What’s the key to delivering exceptional consumer experience at an affordable price?

Aspirational Indian buyers have adopted a brand-conscious approach while deciding on the consumer products and services they choose. Entrepreneurs see this as an opportunity and have focused on niche products and services which have now emerged as sizable consumer categories, including bags, perfumes, shoes and interiors. All these have seen brands emerging and creating their mark. How are these niche brand owners creating consumer categories and satisfying consumer demand for branded products and services? What’s the investors’ take on such emerging categories?

Gautam Sinha - Founder/Creative Director, Nappa Dori

Prashant Prashar - Founder and CEO, Peperone

Sumant Kasliwal - Founder and CEO, 20Dresses.com

Rakesh Sony - Director, Motilal Oswal Private Equity (Moderator)

5:00pm onwards

VCCircle Unwind

This session will provide more networking time to entrepreneurs and investors over cocktails.